These photographs were taken on board the Asturias in November 1948, by Pat Piggott. His wife Irene (Rene) and son Michael are pictured with other passengers. If you can identify them, please let us know.

In 1946 Australia signed an agreement to provide free assisted passages to British ex-servicemen and other selected British Migrants. This was later extended to ex-servicemen from other countries, including Poland. 3,800 Displaced Persons were included in the thousands of migrants who came to Australia.

Many came on a two year contract to help labour shortages. Regardless of their professional skills, they were sent to work on various Hydro-electric schemes including the Snowy Mountains Scheme in NSW and the Hydro Electricity Scheme in Tasmania.

The SS Asturias passenger list for September 1947 shows "278 Polish Soldiers" - Address C/- Tasmanian Hydro-Electricity Commission". Farmers, locksmiths, painters .....soldiers from the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade ("Rats of Tobruk"), they had served with Allied Forces in North Africa.

The soldiers arrived in uniform and were sent to Butler's Gorge, Tasmania where they lived in purpose-built camps.

Antoni Lekstan travelled to Australia on the Asturias in December 1947 and spent some time in Tasmania where he met his wife. Read more....

Polish immigrants from the Asturias - near Butler's Gorge, Tasmania, shortly after their arrival in Australia. Image courtesy of Mr Metiek Drelich, Tas
[click on image to enlarge]

Polish and Australian soldiers, World War II
Image courtesy of Mr Metiek Drelich, Tas.

This group of Polish soldiers arrived in uniform on 8 August 1948. They had fought alongside the British Army and could not return to Communist-controlled Poland. Poles were the first large non-British group of immigrants to come to Australia after World War II. 798 arrived in Tasmania in 1947-8 (591 on the Asturias).